Hadda good week

this week. Got in some nice workout's and some good preparation for next weekends trail race. Actually we did another 10 miles on the trails today at the North Chagrin and had a great run on the snowy trails, which were very runnable. Started nailing down the 2010 race schedule which includes a revamped tri schedule with a few of the local races that are must do's. Gonna do some traveling as well for road, tri and cross for hopefully a fun filled season. We're going to do the Raccoon Rally mountain bike race in New York this year again too. We did it a few years ago and had a blast, so we're going to hit that race up again.
Clothing orders are out and about now for Lake Effect and Cleveland Tri, so race season isn't that far off. We're still mostly doing base mileage right now with just a little increase in intensity, still just enjoying our runs and swims and pretty much dreading the trainer..... but we'll be on the bike outside again before long.
On that note it's back to the Celtic's and the Magic before all the funny commercials come on later.

Peace

Nice day tomorrow

so Scott, Tony and I are going to get out on the bike's for a couple hours in the afternoon. It's supposed to be 35* and sunny so it will be nice to stretch the legs on the bike outside even if it's only going to be short lived. The weather men are talking about the possibility of more snow for Friday and Saturday, so maybe it will be back on the ski's for a couple of days too this weekend, wow, the possibilities are endless around here.

We've been in the pool more last week and so far this week. Tonight we did 2900 meters with some nice sets and Monday we did 2400 meters, I know that's not a big workout, but right now at this time in the season, it's about right to get some work in, the bigger stuff will come later on.

We're doing a 10 mile trail race next weekend in the North Chagrin Reservation and we're looking forward to that. We did a long run there on Sunday to run the sections that the race is going to be held on. There's some big hills and some technical trails, the race is going to be great. We did a 5 mile tempo run last night on the road with the middle 5k run at a fast pace. Our heart rates were up like we were climbing hills at Chapin Forest on the ski's. I still say there is nothing to take the place of xc skiing to get the heart rate up though.

Gotta go, the Buckeye's and Penn State are playing now.

Later all.

Rampin' it up

We're starting to increase the workout time for the month of February. We're going to be in the pool a few more days per week and start doubling up the workouts too. We have structure to the trainer also for the month rather than just spin along as we have been doing, not that we've been on the trainer very much, because we haven't, but now is the time to get a little more serious when we are on the damned thing. The running is still going well and the mileage is increasing, actually we're doing a 2 hour run tomorrow, mostly on the trails. We've been doing some strength training as well and the fitness is pretty decent, just not too much time spent at high end, but then again that's not the target right now. We're going longer in our workouts due to the longer races that we're going to be doing this year. We have some Olympic distance tri's and one Half Ironman scheduled, as well as some long trail races and some mountain bike races. This should be a good season as we're going to be mixing it up quite a bit and mountain bike racing for some high end fitness and fun. We might even do an Xterra triathlon too, that would be awesome. I was going to do the one at West Branch last year but it never worked out for me, so I would really like to fit that into the schedule this season.

I just heard that next to California, Ohio is 2nd. in the nation in hosting triathlons! Thats great cause you wouldn't have to spend countless hours of driving to race different venue's. It is still fun to travel a few times a year to race somewhere different though. We might be heading to Virginia and Kentucky this year for a couple of tri's.

Okay, hope everyone is having a good winter so far and everyone is doing well. Talk to you all soon.

Recent training

Scott and I did a hard 9 mile run yesterday, seven of them were on the icy, snowy trails of the Girdled Rd. Reservation and the last two were on the road. It was a hard run but a good run and both of us could have ran longer so the run training is coming along well. My mileage is around 30 miles per week right now with one tempo run per week and the rest trails and base. I'm feeling much stronger now especially on the hills, which we have been running alot of. Plans are to up the mileage to about 40-45 miles per week in preparation for trail racing and of course triathlon.

Today I got out for 56 miles on the bike in 3:05 with hills, and I rode outside. The conditions were awesome and my legs felt pretty good after doing the run yesterday. Actually despite everything that has been going on this week I did pretty good in the training department, it has kept our mind's clear and made things easier. Tomorrow and Monday will be a little tougher but we have an awesome family and tons of supportive friends..... Then it's back in the pool next week for some much needed swim workouts.

Later all.

The race is over

Well, after a long fight with many health issues, my Dad finally said enough is enough and passed away yesterday. I am at ease with that though after seeing him last week when I went to Florida. I want to remember my Dad as being very active racing snowmobile's, stock cars, riding dirt bikes and always having fun with his antique cars. He loved spending time with his family and especially Tony and Nick when he and my Mom would come home in the summer. He loved to watch Nick play baseball and used to come to the triathlons and he even made a cyclocross race last year before he went back to Florida for the winter. I do not want to remember him as I saw him last week, that was hard, I don't care how tough you are. I know he is at peace now and he isn't suffering or worrying any more and that makes us all happy!

I Love Ya Dad!

A few days in Florida

I had to fly to Florida on Wednesday due to a family issue. My Dad has been in and out of the hospital quite a bit lately, due to many different things and complications from congestive heart failure, a pulmonary issue, and other things. This time is major and he was on life support for over a week. The good news is that he is now off the ventilator and on a devise called a pap mask which forces air into the lungs. Today he is starting to be weened off of the mask from time to time and is using the nasal canula, which are the tubes into the nostrils which you might see people that use oxygen use. The doctors and nurses are optimistic that he is going to recover which is just wonderful news and I feel better now than I have in a couple of weeks, I just pray that he continues to get a little better each day.

While I have been here I have had to get out and get some running in, basically for my own sanity and to clear my head. Being in the Critical Care Unit of any hospital is very depressing and God bless the doctors and nurses that work in those units, they have to have ALOT of compassion for the patients and the family members that are so concerned over loved ones. The past 2 days I have ran. Not with the intent of training, but just to get out and run, but it has been hard. Not necessarily because of my Dad, yes that of course has something to do with it, but I do believe he is going to be okay, but hard because just a few days ago I was xc skiing at Chapin Forest in 20 degrees with a frozen face and now I'm running in 75 degrees and sweating with no time to acclimate to the temperature difference. It's hard! Just last week here in Southwest Florida the temperature wasn't that much different than ours in Ohio, now it has warmed up the way Southern Florida weather should be.

Yesterday I did a 6 mile road run and I just about died. Today I ran for about 8.5 miles. About half of them were in a Nature Preserve on crushed shell and sand trails, it was a beautiful area to run in. I saw 2 Armadillo's and took this Warning sign for a souvenir, there were many posted so I didn't think they would miss just one.....I did feel a little better today though because it was a little windier and didn't seem quite as humid as yesterday. Tomorrow I will run there again and get a few pictures to post, I didn't have my camera with me today, good thing too because as clutzy as I am I probably would have broken it when I fell after tripping over something in the trail.....I'm not even sure what it was that I tripped over, but I do know my knee is sore and so is my hip.

Peace

Chapin weekend

Tony and I hit Chapin both days this weekend for almost 5 hours of skiing. This weekend hurt alot less than last weekend due to my technique being better. XC skiing is alot like cyclocross racing, you have to stay in your heart rate zone and not try to stay with someone for very long that is faster than you cause you'll just blow up and loose technique and then it's no fun being out there.
I concentrated more this weekend on my glide so I'm able to get more out of the ski's. Tony and I ski'd together for the most part this weekend. He would take off on parts and I could only watch him go. That's good because I would pick up the pace to an anerobic state and hold it til he either slowed down or I caught him, but it was usually that he slowed down. His technique is better now than it has ever been, he can hit it pretty good out there. Skiing is alot like swimming too. You can take a really fit athlete and throw him in the pool and if he doesn't have good technique, he'll flounder away in the water with a very high heart rate and he'll feel like he's going to drown only after a 100 meters or so, thus, working on technique is very important.
Lotsa friend's out there this weekend as well that we would ski with for a while and then split up on different sections of the course.
My long time friend Jon Rentschler came up from Canfield this morning to ski and we hooked up with Lori Erwine and we all ski'd together, it was a good hard workout and a lot of fun too.
Nice seeing everyone this weekend!

Snow, snow, and more snow

has been the name of the game lately. Tony and I ran this afternoon and ventured off for about a mile on one of the trails and there had to be at least 2' of snow on it. There were a few foot tracks on it and we tried to run in them, but it wasn't working. We made our own but running in almost knee deep snow for a mile is tough and makes the flat stuff seem very easy. We ran Seeley Rd. to Paine Falls and up Taylor Rd to the Christmas tree farm and back venturing onto the trail that winds along Paine Creek to the Rt. 90 bridge. It was a great run with no traffic, only 1 guy walking with snowshoes on, this is the kind of winter stuff that I love. I wish that I was independently wealthy so I could do more of it in different areas of the country all winter long!

We got out on the ski's Sunday at Chapin. Rudy, Tony and I skated for about 3 hours and my knees were still a little sore today on the run from skiing on Sunday. We saw Gwen and Chris, Dick Brink and a few other bike racers skiing around. We plan on possibly skiing this Saturday and Sunday as well and I don't think we'll have to worry about a lack of snow either.

We signed up for the Run with your Heart 15k Trail Challenge yesterday which is on February 14th (Valentines Day). The race starts in the North Chagrin Reservation's River Grove picnic area and utilizes the parks great trail system. There are some steep hills, technical trails and stream crossings. So far Rudy, Tony and I are running, but Rudy is trying to get the guys from the shop to come out and run too, come on you guys!

Allright, it's off to bed for me, it's snowing pretty good again, so it's going to be another early wake up for me.

Later

Busy weekend

Lotsa happenings over the New Year's weekend between the workouts, Doug's birthday party in cabin # 23 at Punderson and skiing @ Chapin today plus dealing with this weather, I'm just a little whooped. The Cav's come on at 6 tonight so I'm going to sit back and watch and hopefully fall asleep early cause I'm sure I'll be in to work again in the middle of the night if this Lake Effect snow keep's up, and according to Eileen McShea, it will.

here's a couple pics from Dougs B day party.

Happy New Year

everyone. Hope everyone has a great new year and I hope everyone's training and racing plans all come together the way you want them to. Had a nice 11 mile new years day run this morning with a trainer spin in the afternoon. We had a great meal today and the Buckeye's just went ahead of Oregon by a field goal, it's been a great start to 2010.